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Kiran Joshmaul
Admiral Dr. Kiran Joshmaul, MD/CX (Ret.) (born April 11, 1960, Edinburgh, Scotland) is the primary character of Joshua Underwood. Joshmaul was created in 1999; originally, he was portrayed by legendary British horror actor Peter Cushing. As the years went by, Underwood used in-game art from the game Icewind Dale to portray him before - at the suggestion of his friend Rich Terry, alias Herb McWarren - he decided on Brad Dourif, in 2003. Joshmaul has been portrayed by Dourif ever since. In his portrayal by Cushing, Joshmaul was a lunatic psionic mastermind, focused entirely on his own power. As the character evolved into his current portrayal by Dourif, he has become a more elegant and intelligent character - an irony of sorts, considering Cushing was known as the elegant genius, and Dourif as the psychotic criminal. Origins No one is sure what Joshmaul's birth name was, or why he chose the one he did. He was given the name "Kiran" by Dr. Sarina Kaur, the creator of the Chrysalis Project that spawned supermen like Khan Noonien Singh; the "Joshmaul" he chose, it is said, to honor a man who would become his best friend, Joshua Underwood - who, at the time of the Eugenics Wars, was only five years old. The name "Kiran Joshmaul" officially appeared in records around 2161. It is believed that during the Eugenics Wars, Joshmaul (Kiran or Dr. Kiran, as he was known then - he was a doctor of psychology) was an agent of alien "supervisor" Gary Seven, attempting to prevent Khan from starting World War III. Joshmaul himself confirmed this in 2267, when Khan was found by Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Joshmaul was engineered for incredible longevity and strength in the 1970s; however, he was sent into the fray to fight against, rather than alongside, genetically engineered supermen like Khan Noonien Singh. He served in the British Royal Navy during the Eugenics Wars but also - in a limited capacity - in an advisory position to Seven. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. Once the Eugenics Wars ended, Joshmaul faded into obscurity for centuries, bearing silent witness to the Third World War, first contact with Vulcan, and the foundation of the United Federation of Planets. Eventually, Joshmaul saw that the Federation would provide a great opportunity for him, and he decided to take it. In 2197, Joshmaul entered the Federation Starfleet, and graduated Starfleet Academy as a lieutenant, junior grade in 2201. Starfleet Service Joshmaul served on Starfleet vessels in one form or another from the time he entered the Academy until 2276, when he vanished without trace near the Jovian moon of Io. Joshmaul started first with destroyer command during the early conflicts with the Klingons, and received the U.S.S. Constitution (NCC-1700) in 2237. Several years later, Joshmaul - as a commodore - participated in the Battle of Donatu V, fought near Sherman's Planet. While he served in Starfleet, he attended institutes of scientific learning, including MIT, and gained a doctorate in cybernetics in 2245 - the year the Starship Enterprise entered service. In 2246, he established the Joshmaul Defense Corporation to build cybernetic components and also weapons and defensive technology for Starfleet. (It would become one of the largest corporations in the Reydovan Empire under his rule, fifty years later.) Joshmaul also witnessed the rise of James Kirk through the ranks of Starfleet, and the legend that he became in his own lifetime. In 2271, when then-Admiral Kirk was demoted to command the refitted Enterprise, Joshmaul and his friend Joshua Underwood became influential members of Starfleet Command; Joshmaul was on the General Staff, while Underwood had taken over for Kirk at Starfleet Operations until his return. In 2272, when the Kznti Incursion ended at Zetar, Joshmaul became a vocal opponent of most of the Federation Council and Starfleet Command, saying it was their mismanagement and dishonorable espionage tactics against the Kzin that had caused the war in the first place. He became so vocal that he declared open rebellion, and nine systems who would later become part of his Empire went with him. Trial and Disappearance Admiral Joshmaul was tried by the Federation Council for his actions. His best friend, Vice Admiral Underwood, served as his advocate. Underwood said that while Joshmaul's actions were rebellious and ill-conceived, he had given seventy-five years of service to the Federation and Starfleet, and thus asked them to consider that when it pronounced its sentence. The Federation Council agreed, and declared that Joshmaul would be sentenced to rehabilitation before he returned to service. However, when Underwood was taking him to the rehab colony, the Mary D. Anderson - Underwood's flagship - was consumed by a temporal anomaly near Io just as the Enterprise returned from her second five year mission on March 17, 2276. An investigation ensued, and two years later, Joshmaul and Underwood were both declared dead. There was no evidence that they would ever return, and to add to it a piece of hull plating, presumably from the Anderson, was found in orbit. The Federation did not yet realize that the Hand of Fate had made its move, and Joshmaul would be involved in what would happen two decades later, when he had become a caesar... The Rise of Emperor Joshmaul Joshmaul and Underwood appeared near the Reydovan system on August 11, 2296. When the leaders of the now-independent Reydovan systems, who had left the Federation five years earlier, found out that Joshmaul was alive, the Conclave of Serenia was convened to potentially make Joshmaul the new Emperor of an independent Reydovan Empire. However, there was the matter of an already-signed treaty from five years earlier, that said they would not make such a move. However, the Reydovan leaders did not anticipate that Joshmaul would return alive; so they decided to disregard the treaty in order to allow Joshmaul to be their new Emperor. The Conclave was adjourned on October 10, 2296, and the following day Joshmaul was crowned Emperor Joshmaul I in a public ceremony in the newly-renamed Imperial City (formerly "First City") on Reydovan Prime. Once in power, Emperor Joshmaul appointed Joshua Underwood as commander of the Imperial Navy and Daniel Longstreet as the head of the Imperial Marine Corps (the Imperial Army was not established until 2370), and created the Imperial Guard to serve as the police force for the Empire, and also as praetorians to the Emperor himself. He solidified his position quickly, appointing ministers and a council of the planetary leaders to serve as his advisors, though Underwood remained his chief advisor. He would need all of Underwood's expertise two years later, when the Federation discovered that Joshmaul had returned - and had violated a very detailed treaty... War with the Federation In 2298, the Federation Starfleet was vastly depleted as a result of the Khitomer Accords; the Fleet had mostly disarmed over the years, particularly along the Klingon Neutral Zone. When they suspected Joshmaul was alive and leading his own Empire, they dispatched Admiral Daniel Neill - Joshmaul's successor in the General Staff - to investigate this "rebellion" while preparing to build a starbase on Reydovan Prime. The results were devastating; Neill was captured and imprisoned, with no word to Starfleet before he was taken. Neill realized that in order to avoid execution, he would have to swear loyalty to Joshmaul - and that is exactly what he did. The Federation Council went into an uproar. It was divided on the "Reydovan issue" as it stood; a good deal of the Council voted to recognize the Empire as a legitimate state; the remainder, including the reigning President, Ra-ghoratrei of Efros (who had signed the Khitomer Accords five years earlier), were opposed to this move. It would place a "hostile power" right on the border between the Federation and the Klingons. The issue would be decided in battle, and for three years, the Reydovan Empire and the Federation went back and forth, but gained little ground. Finally, tiring of the pointless bloodshed, Ra-ghoratrei contacted Grand Admiral Underwood, the supreme commander of the Emperor's forces, to discuss a treaty. A cease-fire was called on April 7, 2301. Thus, the Treaty of Korolev in its final form was officially signed on August 11, 2301 (the terms had been decided months earlier, during the cease-fire), defining the border between the Reydovan Empire and the Federation, as well as securing Joshmaul's legitimacy as Emperor. The Calm Before the Storm Joshmaul ruled peacefully as Emperor for twenty years after the end of the war, but he soon realized that the details of running the government might be too much for one man alone. In 2321, he appointed Grand Admiral Underwood as the first Imperial Chancellor, to handle all the administrative details of the government. Through that time period, Joshmaul managed to keep the peace, but by 2348, things were starting to turn awry with the Sha'kurian Duchies, and soon it degenerated into open war. In mid-2349, an assault was needed, and a commander was needed to lead it. The Emperor asked for a man capable of leading smaller forces head on into the larger Sha'kurian force. One hand went up - 48-year-old Major General Jeremiah Neill, who had been promoted twice over the course of the war, and was known as a "reckless son-of-a-bitch", as Daniel Longstreet put it. (Ironically enough, Neill's nephew, Jonathan Ross, was referred to quite similarly by the same man, twenty-five years later.) With Neill leading a small force into that battle, they managed to destroy their opponents with few losses, due to the hit-and-run tactics that Neill favored. The war ended in 2350 in a decisive Imperial victory. Return to Starfleet The war with the Dominion came and went, and so too did several officers: Daniel Longstreet became commander of the SFMC (and was killed at the Battle of Cardassia), and Neill and Ross went with him. Emperor Joshmaul remained in power for some time, but after the war ended in 2375, the Reydovan state undergoes great change. Now a celebrated friend of the Federation, Kiran Joshmaul abdicates and returns to Starfleet with great fanfare. He is restored to his rank of Admiral on March 17, 2375 - exactly 99 years to the day he disappeared while en route to the Tantalus V Colony for rehabilitation. He is given the post of Chief of Starfleet Operations, the same post held by Joshua Underwood on that fateful day a century earlier. His surviving son Azrael refused to take the throne (his younger son, Kiran, Jr., having died in 2374), and so Underwood, the reigning Chancellor, dissolves the monarchy and establishes the Reydovan Democratic Republic. But the Reydovan nobility disagreed with this move entirely, believing that the Republic would result in their removal from their powers. Led by Grand Duke Gavriil Tscholivosky of Caymarnian City, the nobility united with the resurrected Artimus Devaneaux against Underwood, who was forced to go into exile with his commanders on Earth. Crowning the madman Emperor Artimus I, Gavriil and the council of nobles began to reform the Empire to their standards. But Artimus grew tired of the constant squabbling, and in November 2375 ordered the execution of the Grand Duke and the other nobles. Joshmaul realized that the nobility would be able to turn the tide against "Mad Emperor Artimus", if the people they ruled would be convinced. So he moved in and rescued the council of nobles from Artimus' jails and brought them to Earth. A new council of nobles, led by Gavriil and his father, Grand Duke Vladimir, is headquartered on Earth with Joshua Underwood, the Chancellor-in-exile. Joshmaul went before the Federation Council and said that the sooner Starfleet acted, the shorter Artimus' reign of blood would be. Though President Victor Manchester expressed his desire to avoid the useless effusion of blood, the Council and Starfleet Command agreed that Joshmaul was the best man to lead the Starfleet effort. Joshmaul received orders to do "whatever is necessary to end the tyrannical rule of Artimus Devaneaux and prevent other empires and their people from suffering the same fate as the Empire you created nearly eighty years ago." Investigation In mid-to-late 2375, two captains, Eshi se Ranor of the Venture and Amy Angel of the Victory's March, discovered that two officers had been lost in the 23rd century when se Ranor's vessel, the Venture, was sent back in time; the Venture was exploring Titan's Rift when the Hand of Joshmaul space station, a weapon controlled by Artimus, fired into it. They ended up in 2267 and encountered se Ranor's grandfather, the legendary Admiral Foxx Everknight, who was a captain at the time. The two Venture officers, Jackson Howard and Ashly Rhodus, were left behind in that time when the Venture returned. Their files were sealed afterwards by Joshmaul himself - in 2267, when he was serving on the General Staff. Realizing this might be a clue, se Ranor and Angel went to Joshmaul over a century after the files were sealed and asked him to analyze them. Joshmaul did so, and discovered that in addition to the sealed bio files on Howard and Rhodus, he discovered another name, one he had come to dread - Artimus Devaneaux. According to the sealed file, Artimus had been a Starfleet attaché to Dr. Bendes Ketteract, the scientist Joshmaul had collaborated with in Omega research. Artimus' involvement ended up being more broad than Joshmaul anticipated - Artimus had transferred to Joshmaul's staff just before Ketteract's station exploded. When asked by Angel why Howard and Rhodus were the two that remained, Joshmaul replied that it had something to do with destiny, that they were chosen for some great thing. The Admiral believed that Artimus was going to attempt something....and "those two kids", as he termed it, were the only thing standing in his way. Stockpile of Evil In 2372, Artimus moved all of his bioweapons and Joshmaul's Omega research to the abandoned tower-fortress of Castle Devaneaux, and hid here alone three years later when he was defeated by Imperial loyalists, while giving the Imperials and the Federation the impression that he was on the run onboard his flagship, the Hand of Artimus. From here, he continued working on his bioweapons and Omega research, out of the eyes of the unsuspecting public. Not even Joshmaul would think that Artimus would set up shop there. That lack of knowledge was Joshmaul's greatest mistake... Ambushed! On December 29, 2375, Artimus kidnapped the Admiral on Deep Space Nine, while he was visiting Captain Jasmine Blade, the station's commander - who had, at Joshmaul's request, overthrew Artimus' regime along with General David Highland. Blade was in the station infirmary due to an assassination attempt, orchestrated by terrorists loyal to Artimus and to the leader of the Maquis, Charles Leyton. Because the station infirmary was locked down tight by the chief medical officer, Lieutenant Commander Geoffry D'Arcy - so much so that not even Joshmaul himself would have been able to break in - Artimus decided that Blade would be dealt with later. Donning his hooded cloak, with the ominous white hand symbol on its back, Artimus laid in wait until Joshmaul prepared to return to his ship, then made his move, clouting him in the head and dragging him to his waiting shuttle - in front of about four hundred witnesses in the Promenade. Joshmaul, along with about 220 other prisoners, was kept imprisoned in the lowest dungeons of Castle Devaneaux, adjacent to Artimus' weapons laboratory. The Federation attempted to send a rescue mission to aid them before Artimus either decided to execute them or move them to a more secure location. After constant delays, the Federation finally found Joshmaul and 183 other survivors, and brought them back to Earth. Joshmaul was seriously wounded in the escape attempt, but managed to contact his flagship, the U.S.S. Admiral Graf Spee, who came in to rescue them before the Hand of Artimus investigated the alarms at Castle Devaneaux. The Madness of Chancellor Underwood In the weeks following his rescue from Castle Devaneaux, Joshmaul tried to return to a normal schedule, appointing new department heads - he gained a deputy chief of Operations and helped appoint a Starfleet Surgeon General. He is also rumored to be in collaboration with his colleague Daisuke Tokugawa, the head of Tactical Command, in developing new additions to the military arsenal of the Fleet. With a new Council convened, and the election of Meriah Broussard as Federation President and Talus of Vulcan as the Council Speaker, the Admiral believed that peace was returning to the region at last. He was soon to be proven quite wrong. Shortly after the Council elections, Joshmaul's best friend, protégé and successor, Joshua Underwood, arrived on Earth to meet with him, and Admiral Tokugawa, with an inquiry of why the Federation mission sent by Tokugawa's department had not yet arrived. Meeting at a San Francisco restaurant, Tokugawa explained to Joshmaul and Underwood why the mission was recalled - the Borg had started to regain strength, and had ambushed the starship Phoenix, killing much of her crew. As a result, most of the Tactical Command forces - Task Force Delta in the Romulan Neutral Zone, and the mission headed for Reydovan Prime - were recalled to Vulcan to counter this threat. Underwood was incensed; he angrily pointed out that the Hand of Joshmaul, the Omega weapon station controlled by Artimus Devaneaux, had completely destroyed one planet, and incinerated the surface of the other, and the Federation seemed not to care for the loss of nearly a billion lives...yet the loss of one ship mobilized the entire Fleet. Angry and embarassed by the Chancellor's outburst, Joshmaul was left to wonder what was happening to his friend of three and a half centuries...and why he was behaving like a maniac. Days later, Underwood ranted and raved in Joshmaul's office, pointing out much of the same things. Finally, the Admiral told him to be silent. Uncharacteristic of the noble man he had become known as, Underwood snarled that if Joshmaul ever spoke to him in that manner again, "I will tear your tongue from your mouth and make you eat it." Then he stormed from Joshmaul's office, returning to Reydovan Prime. But this would not be the end of his woes at the hands of the Chancellor. On February 17, 2376, in a fit of deranged fury, the Chancellor issued an order to the Federation Council for Joshmaul's immediate arrest and extradition to Reydovan Prime for trial, accusing him of crimes against the Empire - specifically, training Artimus Devaneaux in the art of the mind rules and building the Omega weapon. He gave the Federation two days to comply, or he would declare war. Joshmaul seemed resigned to his fate, in order to prevent the Empire he had ruled for eighty years from burning in the fires of the Chancellor's madness. He made the decision to go to Reydovan Prime to face the trial...and if possible, kill the Chancellor before his madness threatened the fragile alliance with the Federation. Joshmaul had been offered sanctuary by the new President, as a gesture of respect for the way he offered her sanctuary in his castle in Scotland after suffering from severe psionic trauma. Broussard asked Joshmaul if he truly wanted to be dead, and the Admiral replied that he would do what he could to stop the next major war. "If it kills me...then perhaps it is time for Kiran Joshmaul to die," he said. It was then that the investigative abilities of his political ally, Councillor Mikhail Britanov, paid off... Shattered Mirror Britanov was contacted by the Governor-General of Reydovan Prime, Alexander Ross, informing him of Underwood's decision moments before it reached the Federation News Network. He said that he was en route to Earth with Ian Taylor, the commander of the Chancellor's fleet, and Matthew Russell, the commander of the Imperial Guard. While in the citadel of the Chancellor, Ross and Russell ambushed Underwood in his office and managed to disable him. Turning him over to his doctors for examination to determine the exact cause of his dementia, the two men managed to beam up to Underwood's flagship, the Absolution, and make it to Earth under Starfleet escort. When the Absolution arrived, the Governor-General received the exact diagnosis, and transmitted the information to Britanov. Sometime in the last standard week, Ross deduced, Chancellor Underwood had been replaced - by his vile mirror universe counterpart. In the mirror universe, the Reydovan Empire existed...and Underwood had assassinated Joshmaul to claim the Reydovan throne for himself. Britanov, with his own deduction, believed that Artimus Devaneaux was behind this - if the mirror Underwood managed to kill Joshmaul, then was killed by the Federation or Reydovan revolutionaries, the Empire would destabilize...and Artimus would move in for the kill. Britanov then sent the report to President Broussard. Joshmaul received the information from the Absolution scant moments later. Joshmaul knew that Underwood must be found alive and Artimus, as well as Underwood's counterpart, had to be destroyed in order to maintain the Empire's existence. He agreed with Britanov that Artimus was behind the counterpart's emergence, and he believed that Underwood was being held in Castle Devaneaux, probably subjected to psychological torture. (Joshmaul was right; Underwood was indeed in the Defiler's unholy sanctuary, and was being subjected to psychological torture - in the form of the FNN news reels portraying him as a deranged warmonger.) Days later, at great risk to both himself and his men, Joshmaul rescued Underwood from Castle Devaneaux. He thought it seemed too easy, that Artimus had something in mind. He was right...chased down by the Hand of Artimus, Joshmaul was able to get the paralyzed Chancellor and much of his crew to safety, but his flagship, the Admiral Graf Spee, was destroyed in the process. The Ides of March: Atoning For The Past On March 11, 2376, days after the crowning of Kieran Devaneaux to be Joshmaul's official successor as Emperor, both Federation and Reydovan leaders agreed it was time to end the war once and for all. In a meeting with President Broussard, the Emperor outlined the battle plan to retake Reydovan Prime and destroy both Artimus and the mirror Underwood, but he needed her help in order to do it. The Emperor and the President agreed to a mutual assistance pact; in return for Starfleet support in overthrowing Artimus' regime, the Empire would give whatever aid possible to the Federation in their potential conflict with the Adiam Pack. Kieran's plan involved a battle in space to spread out Artimus' forces, destroy the Hand of Artimus (and thus all command and control for the Separatist naval forces), and pave the way for the ground invasion. Once on the ground, Starfleet and Imperial troops would overrun the Separatist guard positions, break into the Imperial Palace complex, and kill the mirror Underwood. Then, aided by Starfleet Marines, Joshmaul would sneak into Castle Devaneaux and set the reactor to destabilize at his command. After that, it would be time to deal with Artimus. On March 14, 2376, the combined Imperial-Federation fleet left Earth and arrived at Reydovan Prime late the following day. The plan went exactly as Kieran had forseen; the Hand of Artimus was destroyed, and the command structure of the Separatist fleet collapsed. With about half their fleet destroyed and the other half crippled, the Separatists surrendered. The ground invasion was even shorter than originally projected, and once that was done, Joshmaul worked his magic to cripple to prepare Castle Devaneaux for its brutal and violent end. The Death of Artimus Devaneaux Along with Underwood and Kieran, Joshmaul determined that it was time to finally end the war by dealing with Artimus, and all three men swore an oath that they would carry out their mission...or die trying. The three men beamed into Artimus' throne room and confronted him. A brief psionic duel between the Mad Emperor and the Admiral broke out, Artimus exhausting himself with his attempts while Joshmaul barely flinched. Realizing he could not beat Joshmaul in the realm of the mind, Artimus then turned his attention to Kieran, projecting images of the torture and mutilation of his friends and loved ones in his mind. But Joshmaul and Underwood were right there, boosting the Emperor's blocking of the horrific images. His resolve restored, Kieran confronted his father and told him to accept fate; the war was over, he could not win. Artimus boasted that Kieran could not beat him on even terms, and he knew it. "So does your mother," he said next, grabbing his ex-wife Anastasia, battered and broken, and throwing her to the floor. That did not have the effect that Artimus intended. Kieran hurled his sword into Artimus' chest, killing the Defiler and ending his reign of terror. Escape from Castle Devaneaux After Artimus was destroyed, the three men were alerted by a violent shaking in the castle's foundations. Below them, an internal explosion ripped through the "opera house" at the bottom of the castle, set off by zealots trying to trap them. In addition, radiation levels from the Omega reactor rose enough to interfere with transporting. The Marine command ship Shenandoah, along with the starship Prestigious, linked their targeting scanners to beam the three men aboard, along with Lady Anastasia Devaneaux, the former wife of Artimus and mother of Kieran. Joshmaul, the last to beam out, activated the remote destabilization, starting the fifteen-second countdown to the containment field's collapse. Then, just as the timer reached zero, Joshmaul was beamed away, and Castle Devaneaux consumed by the fury of Omega. Joshmaul had set the destabilzation just enough to destroy the tower, the surrounding terrain, and whatever remained of Artimus' forces, before the reactor fizzled out. That was enough. Dealing with the Rising Conflicts After Artimus was defeated, Joshmaul returned to Earth onboard the Marine command ship Shenandoah, leaving the Imperials to rebuild their shattered capital. However, the problems surrounding him did not end with Artimus. His ally in the Council, Mikhail Britanov, became increasingly blunt in his statements to the press and to his colleagues on the matter of Rachel Vantine, appointed ambassador to the Adiam Pack by Britanov himself while he was President. He publicly stated that he made a terrible error in appointing her and called for her arrest. Others in the Council and in Starfleet condemned Vantine as a traitor for marrying the only known Pack representative, Chirann Koresh, and apparently throwing in her lot with his people. Joshmaul, having returned to Reydovan Prime for a short time, received word of the crisis back on Earth and immediately knew something was wrong. Meaning to confront Britanov in his office upon his return, the first thing he heard when he checked into his office was that Britanov was apparently dead. Calling on the physicians to the Chancellor, who had conducted the tests of the mirror Underwood's blood during that debacle a month earlier, Joshmaul conducted tests on the corpse of the "Councillor". He managed to find the quantum signature unique to the mirror universe, but needed a sample of the real Britanov's blood to test against. Days later, the real Britanov was found in his isolated dacha on the outskirts of Moscow, bound with sharp wire, gagged, and brutalized. Upon his admission to the hospital, Joshmaul went immediately to work, ordering the body found in Britanov's office to be sent to Moscow from San Francisco for analysis. Conducting his own tests, Joshmaul believed that the two blood samples, with the exception of the quantum signature, would be an exact match. Sure enough, they were. But Joshmaul knew this would not convince the Pack leadership, who viewed Britanov as a slanderous liar and a warmonger...nor was he out to convince them anyway. He needed only to convince one person: the subject of the slanderous statements, Rachel Vantine. The Move is Made Calling Vantine, along with Chirann, to the hospital, Joshmaul explained his findings and revealed what he knew. He speculated that Charles Leyton, also known as the Betrayer, may have been behind the replacement of Britanov with his mirror counterpart in order to spark the war with the Pack that Joshmaul and many of his colleagues dreaded. Vantine pointed out - and Joshmaul agreed - that a war with the Pack would lead to a horrific death toll on both sides, and be just as wasteful and costly as the war with the Dominion...a war the Federation was still recovering from even a year after the fact. Two days later, Vantine was arrested by order of President Broussard, finally bowing to the pressure to try her for treason. Chirann was also arrested, as a spy of a hostile power. Joshmaul was not informed until the day after the fact, after returning from an address to the Council on her behalf. He was in his laboratory at his castle in Scotland when his son Azrael gave him the news: both Vantine and her husband were being held at Starfleet Security's detention center. Infuriated, Joshmaul returned to San Francisco and spoke to Vantine in her cell. Vantine explained what had happened and asked that Joshmaul somehow get her out of prison, or at least in a cell with Chirann. Joshmaul vowed he would do his best. His opponent in this ongoing battle of wits was the xenophobic Solicitor General, Captain Dawson Crenshaw, who seemed to have automatically lumped Vantine into the category of "traitor". Bringing Down the Traitor Through Joshmaul's actions, and coordination with General Neill, he managed to unmask Crenshaw as the Betrayer of his prophetic vision in 2371, along with Artimus the Defiler and Demon-Kieran the Deceiver - who had been revealed as Artimus' successor. Major General Jonathan Ross, Neill's nephew, led the operation himself, dangling the bait in front of the Solicitor General. Crenshaw acted as predicted, and was captured immediately. Romulan Affairs Following the overthrow of the Tre'Onveh Emperorship and the rise of Andavien S'then Ataeres, the Romulan Star Empire began to end two centuries of distrust between them and the Federation. The chief of External Affairs, Rear Admiral Bale Mectiana, informed Joshmaul that a Romulan official requested his presence, being the chief of Starfleet Operations. As he made his preparations to leave for Vulcan to attend the conference, Joshmaul received word of Praetor Andavien's death. The Admiralty feared that Andavien's death would derail the peace negotiations, but Joshmaul believed that the Praetor's son Etaen, his successor, would possibly continue his father's mission. With the dissolution of the Neutral Zone in May 2376, Joshmaul's belief in Etaen was well-founded. The peace was short-lived, however, with the rise of Praetor Hiren and the re-establishment of the Neutral Zone, later that year. The Scimitar incident three years later did nothing to allay the Admiralty's fears. Joshmaul never made it to the conference on Vulcan - waylaid by bureaucratic concerns on Earth. The Demon's Revenge On June 24, 2376, the "Second Warlord", Demon-Kieran the Deceiver, began the long-threatened invasion of Earth. Commanding the situation from the Hand of Joshmaul space station, left in his possession following Artimus' death, Demon-Kieran completely encircled Earth and began bombarding its surface defenses. He then unloaded his legions of zealots, pirates, mercenaries and assassins in both Paris and San Francisco. Joshmaul had been at Starfleet Research and Development in Tokyo developing a sensor system that could counter the Reydovan cloaking device, which had been undetectable for nearly forty years. While this would give the Federation a distinct advantage over the Empire, it would only be used to counter Demon-Kieran's massive fleet. Recalled to San Francisco just before the troops began to land, Joshmaul and Jonathan Ross, commanding the Starfleet Marines on Earth, barracaded themselves and their staffs in the war room at Starfleet Headquarters. All long-range communications were jammed, which meant that it would require a ship to break through the Separatist blockade and reach Reydovan Prime to inform the Emperor. The Akira-class Constellation, commanded by Captain Ashi Tokugawa, was the fastest and stealthiest ship in the fleet, equipped with Aetherian transwarp and a phase cloak - a technology now made legal in the Federation following the revocation of the Treaty of Algeron. Taking Joshmaul aboard, the Constellation managed to escape from Earth and reached the border of the Reydovan Empire in less than two days - far faster than a conventional warp drive. The Battle of Defileron Joshmaul, aided by Underwood, managed to convince the stubborn Emperor to aid the Federation war effort. Once unity was made, Joshmaul played only one major part in the Battle of Defileron - towards the end. Locked in combat, Kieran and Demon-Kieran were trading blows against one another, equally matched based on their strengths - Kieran's fighting ability, and Demon-Kieran's mastery of psionic combat. Realizing that the Demon was gaining the upper hand and would kill Kieran if something were not done quickly, Joshmaul lashed out with a bolt of psionic energy, stunning the Emperor of Defileron enough for the Emperor of the Reydovans to lash out with what remained of his strength, kicking across the face of his evil reflection. The impact of the kick broke Demon-Kieran's neck, killing him before he could hit the ground. After Defileron After Demon-Kieran's defeat at the Battle of Defileron, Joshmaul enjoyed a relatively peaceful tenure as chief of Starfleet Operations. But in 2383, the Admiral - by that time, well into his fourth century - suffered a heart attack, and requested a year's sabbatical to recuperate. His right-hand, Admiral Saxtus Fayhan, became acting Chief of Starfleet Operations until Joshmaul returned the following year. Then Fayhan left to become Chief of Military Operations, and Joshmaul found himself in need of a new deputy. After being unable to find a suitable person to take over, one came to him - his old pupil and friend, Joshua Underwood, who had retired from the Chancellorship some years earlier. Underwood asked for his Starfleet commission - deactivated since 2276 - to be reinstated, at the rank of Vice Admiral. Underwood served at Joshmaul's side for seven more years, before both men retired in 2391. Underwood returned to Reydovan Prime to serve as an informal advisor to Emperor Kieran, while Joshmaul has gone on speaking tours about his service in Starfleet, the wars he'd fought, founding the Reydovan Empire, and other things of interest. After his retirement, when he was not speaking in public, Joshmaul worked in his cybernetics lab at his castle in Scotland, trying to advance the field of cybernetic medicine. His company, Joshmaul Defense Corporation, has worked in developing cybernetic enhancements in medicine, warfare (hence its name) and propulsion technology. Joshmaul had inactively run JDC while he was in Starfleet; after his retirement, he began to actively take over the day to day operations of running the corporation. Entering Politics In 2406, after being retired for fifteen years, Joshmaul decided to re-enter public service - particularly politics. Since his retirement, he had watched with a mixture of anticipation and dread the way things were going in the Federation government under the latter half of Mikhail Britanov's administration and all of Saxtus Fayhan's. With the new President, Nosredna Blade, new to her office, Joshmaul decided that his long years of experience were better in the service of a president learning the reins than a career politician, like Britanov had been. Taking a chance, he entered his name into the running for the Federation Council as the representative from Earth. With no clear opponent for the post, Joshmaul was elected on August 21, 2406. This decision proved to be one of the greatest mistakes ever made... Prelude to Madness Joshmaul quickly grew tired of the lack of respect - and lack of deference - from the President and the Council. In October, Joshmaul opposed a measure to grant Starfleet free rein in regards to the investigation of the rift that had split Pluto in half. When he spoke in opposition, Joshmaul was ridiculed by his colleague from Earth, believed to be a descendant of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. By December, information from the Reydovan Empire (now the Greater Reydovan Imperium) had stopped coming to him; all of his agents now reported to his former student, Joshua Underwood. Underwood, a master of political intrigue, had reacted violently upon meeting Joshmaul to discuss the Councillor's plan to oust President Blade; Joshmaul's chief of staff, Alastair MacDonald, had joined with Underwood in that regard, and remained in Joshmaul's service only as a bargaining chip; if Joshmaul fired him, Joshmaul would fall with him. Underwood began playing his cards well, to undermine Joshmaul's secret puppeteering - Joshmaul's pawn, Marshal Jeremiah Neill, was ousted from the Chancellorship, replaced by August von Spee, former Director of Operations at Joshmaul Defense Corporation. Grand Inquisitor Velenkayn I, the co-ruler of the Greater Reydovan Imperium, called on Underwood and his connections with the President and the Council to fix the mistakes of the boy-Emperor Kieran II...with the caveat that Joshmaul is not involved to any extent. Joshmaul was outraged, and immediately fired MacDonald; both MacDonald and Underwood carried out their threat. On December 29, 2406, Underwood and MacDonald wrote a petition to President Blade calling for Joshmaul's impeachment. The following day, Joshmaul disappears without trace from Earth. The Great Betrayal Joshmaul, using his formidable psionic powers, shielded both himself and his long-range warp shuttle from Federation sensors and makes his way halfway across the galaxy into the Greater Reydovan Imperium - specifically, in an area deep in the Beta Quadrant that was designated off-limits since 2376: The ruins of the planet Defileron. Joshmaul, with cultists of Artimus, searched deep into the psionic nether for a powerful soul to bring back into the world and inflict terror in his name. After nearly eighteen hours of constant searching, Joshmaul finds the soul he is seeking, the soul of a former student burning with hatred since his death at the hands of Emperor Kieran I - the soul of Artimus Devaneaux. In the end, Kiran Joshmaul has echoed his former student's downfall into madness, and now prepares for the most monstrous betrayal ever conceived - a betrayal that he had held in check for over a century. On January 1, 2407, Underwood and his Gorak'nar enforcer, Ammenkayn, were exploring Joshmaul's abandoned castle in Scotland. Having rescued Alastair MacDonald - who was imprisoned, tortured and mutilated by Joshmaul - Ammenkayn had stumbled onto Joshmaul's armory. Underwood explained briefly that these were the Scionic series of armor suits that he had designed for Joshmaul in 2356, intended to provide the ultimate in armored protection and heavy firepower...and connect the wearer's mind directly to Joshmaul, making them extensions of his own will. Without warning, one of the suits was activated - via long-range telepathy by Joshmaul, as the armored suits are connected to his consciousness - and began opening fire. Ammenkayn was unscathed, and Underwood managed to disable the armored suit after being seriously wounded. Seeing that this did not kill Underwood as he had intended, Joshmaul decided to pursue the matter himself... Transporting into Underwood's chambers, Joshmaul telekinetically incapacitated Underwood and revealed his plan - to resurrect Artimus, and eventually conquer the galaxy, as he had intended in 2296. After making his revelation, Joshmaul ran Underwood through with the younger man's own sword cane; Underwood was dead within minutes. Confronted by Ammenkayn, Joshmaul invoked ancient Gorak'nar words of power to incapacitate Ammenkayn and her warriors long enough for him to escape. Medals and Awards In a long service, Joshmaul has earned many medals. Starfleet Awards *Federation Medal of Honor, awarded by President Hiram Roth for meritorious action during the Battle of Zetar, ending the Kznti Incursion, 2272 *Starfleet Cross, Kznti Incursion, 2272 *Bronze Star, Battle of Donatu V, 2242 *Legion of Merit, first UFP battle with the Klingons, 2218 *Distinguished Service Cross, 50 years of service, 2251 *Silver Star, Battle of Zetar, 2272 *Combat Bar, service in Klingon and Kznti conflicts *Defense Superior Service Bar, Kznti Incursion, 2267-2272 *Three Purple Hearts - Klingon Conflicts 2218, Battle of Zetar 2272, and Battle of Reydovan Prime 2376 *Leonard H. McCoy Medal for Medicine, for advancements in the field of cybernetic medicine, 2375 *Starfleet Exploration Bar, for (albeit small) part in first contact with the Adiam Pack, 2375 *75 Year Service Bar, 2276 *General Staff Service Bar, 2267-2276 *Klingon Campaign Service Medal, 2218 *Kznti Incursion Service Medal, 2272 *Dominion War Service Medal (though not officially Starfleet during service, he was given this anyway), 2375 *Reydovan Civil War Service Medal, 2375-2376 Reydovan Empire Service *Crown of Joshmaul, 2296-2375 *Four Orders of Reydovan - Imperial Founding 2296, Battle of the Expanse 2301, Imperial Reformation 2321, and Battle of Korolev Prime 2373 *Medal of the Defiler's Fall, 2376 *Medal of the Demon's Fall, 2376 Children Joshmaul had two sons. Their mother's identity remains unknown. *Azrael (born 2325) *Kiran, Jr. (born 2329, died 2374) Joshmaul, Kiran